Hospitality food waste can be tackled through logistics

Logistics could play a key role in reducing the amount of food waste produced by companies within hospitality. A new report by Carbon Statement for the Hospitality Carbon Reduction Forum stated that organisations could save up to 30 per cent on their food waste management costs by implementing more stringent logistics. They will also be able to send much less food to a landfill through improvements in their supply chain. One of the key solutions raised in the report was the collaboration between companies and efficient backhauling by logistics operators. A more coherent partnership will help to reduce the need for more food being wasted by some of the country’s leading hospitality organisations. Members of the forum including Whitbread, Wetherspoons and Mitchells & Butlers, collectively spend around £46 million on waste management every year with 150,000 tonnes still go to the landfill. It is an issue that the companies are eager to address especially as utility costs are expected to rise by 30 per cent in the next three years. Chris George, head of energy and environment at Whitbread, said: “Restaurant businesses produce a lot of waste and the industry is aware of this, so a lot of progressive work is being done to address waste and promote recycling, while educating and motivating people to do the right thing.” The issue facing hospitality companies is that with increasing utility costs, Carbon Statement estimates that they will have to increase their turnover by over ten per cent to ensure they stay within the current business margins. The likes of Wetherspoons and Mitchells & Butlers have a huge investment in pubs across the UK. Wetherspoons operates 860 pubs, as of 2012, and has even branched out into offering hotel accommodation in a selected number of outlets. Mitchells & Butlers also has an array of properties as it currently owns brands such as Toby Carvery, Harvester, All Bar One, Browns Restaurants and O’Neills.